BILL vs. Wave

At a glance

Best for

Best for small and mid-sized businesses that want to automate accounts payable, accounts receivable and spend on top of an accounting system they already run.

Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Wave

Best for

Best for freelancers and very small businesses that want free invoicing and bookkeeping, with paid add-ons for bank automation, receipts and payroll.

Freelancers
Small and mid-sized

Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.

Full Comparison

Criterion	BILL	Wave
Starting price	From $49 / user / month Essentials plan for accounts payable and receivable, billed per user. BILL Spend & Expense is free to use; Enterprise pricing is custom.	lower value Free; Pro from $19 / month The Starter plan is free with unlimited invoicing and bookkeeping. The Pro plan adds bank connections, automatic categorization, invoice branding and reduced payment fees. Receipt scanning (from $8 / month) and Wave Payroll (from $25 / month) are paid add-ons.
API	Yes, the BILL v3 REST API with webhooks, on the Corporate and Enterprise plans	Not stated
Hosting	Cloud (SaaS)	Cloud (SaaS)
Invoicing and quotes	Yes, accounts receivable with custom invoices, recurring billing, automated reminders and online payment collection	Yes, unlimited professional invoices, estimates and bills on every plan, with recurring billing, online payments and automated late-payment reminders on Pro
Bookkeeping and bank feeds	No general ledger of its own; bills, invoices and payments sync two-way with the accounting platform in use	Yes; the Pro plan connects bank accounts and auto-imports, merges and categorizes transactions, while the free Starter plan records them manually
Expenses and receipts	Yes, via BILL Spend & Expense: corporate cards, budgets, expense tracking and reimbursements	Receipt scanning with OCR is a paid add-on (from $8 / month); expenses are otherwise tracked through categorized transactions and the Tags feature
Tax and compliance	1099 filing from BILL Accounts Payable: payments to 1099 vendors are tracked and 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms are collected, created and filed with the IRS through the Tax1099 integration, or exported as CSV for another filing service	Through the paid Wave Payroll add-on: automatic payroll tax payments and filings with state agencies and the IRS, excluding 1099 filings, plus W-2, W-3 and 1099-NEC forms in the US and T4 and T4A slips and summaries in Canada
Payroll	No payroll product; BILL covers accounts payable, accounts receivable and spend and expense, with employee reimbursements handled in BILL Spend & Expense	Available as a paid add-on, Wave Payroll, from $25 / month
Reports and exports	Customisable reports and dashboards across AP, AR and Spend & Expense, filtered by date, vendor, customer, department, category, budget, card or user, with company, budget and individual views, plus exception and budget-versus-actual reports; exports and sync into QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct and Microsoft Dynamics, and CSV export profiles for other systems and BI tools	Yes, financial reports and dashboard insights, with a Tags feature for tracking profitability by project or client
Integrations and API	Yes, the BILL v3 REST API with webhooks, available on the Corporate and Enterprise plans	Yes, a documented GraphQL API on Wave's developer portal, with OAuth applications, a single public endpoint, webhooks and an API playground
Deployment	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	more entries Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat	Email helpdesk, Chat
Onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base	Documentation and knowledge base
Company size	Small and mid-sized, Enterprise	Freelancers, Small and mid-sized
Integrations	more entries QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Pro/Premier, QuickBooks Enterprise, Xero, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics, Acumatica, Sage 50, Sage 100, Blackbaud, FreshBooks, Tax1099, Tallie, Hubdoc, Earth Class Mail, Slack	Plaid

Compare more tools

Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

Starting price BILL From $49 / user / month Wave Free; Pro from $19 / month
Company size BILL Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Wave Freelancers, Small and mid-sized
Support BILL Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat Wave Email helpdesk, Chat
Invoicing and quotes BILL Yes, accounts receivable with custom invoices, recurring billing, automated reminders and online payment collection Wave Yes, unlimited professional invoices, estimates and bills on every plan, with recurring billing, online payments and automated late-payment reminders on Pro
Bookkeeping and bank feeds BILL No general ledger of its own; bills, invoices and payments sync two-way with the accounting platform in use Wave Yes; the Pro plan connects bank accounts and auto-imports, merges and categorizes transactions, while the free Starter plan records them manually

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

BILL

Strengths

Automates accounts payable and receivable with approval workflows
Two-way sync with the accounting platform a business already uses
Separate Spend & Expense product with corporate cards is free to use
v3 REST API with webhooks on the higher plans

Limitations

Not a general ledger; a separate accounting system is still needed
API access is limited to the Corporate and Enterprise plans

Wave

Strengths

Free Starter plan with unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping
Pro plan connects bank accounts and auto-categorizes transactions
Add-ons for receipt scanning, payroll and expert bookkeeping through Wave Advisors
Accepts credit card, bank transfer and Apple Pay payments

Limitations

Bank connections, invoice branding and reduced fees require the paid Pro plan
Receipt scanning and payroll are paid add-ons rather than included

Plans

Pricing

BILL

Essentials $49 / user / month Accounts payable or receivable automation with manual sync to accounting software.
Team $65 / user / month Adds enhanced controls and automatic two-way sync with major accounting platforms.
Corporate $89 / user / month Adds procurement, further customization and API access, for managing AP, AR and procurement together.
Enterprise Not stated Custom pricing; adds multi-entity capabilities, priority support and advanced integrations.
Spend & Expense Free Corporate cards, budgets, expense tracking and access to credit lines, at no software cost.

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Wave

Starter Free Unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping, plus the mobile app. Online payments cost 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction.
Pro $19 / month Adds bank connections with automatic import and categorization, custom invoice branding, automated late-payment reminders and reduced payment-processing fees. Also $190 / year.

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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

BILL

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.

Wave

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.

Where this comes from

BILL https://www.bill.com · checked against the official source on 2026-08-22

Wave https://www.waveapps.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-12

This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.